News

Darwen 'most wanted list' man re-captured

ONE of East Lancashire’s most wanted men is waking up behind bars after being captured by police.

Police appealed for help in catching James Mark Gorman after he went on the run from HMP Kennet in February while on temporary release.

The 31-year-old, from Hazel Avenue in Darwen, was arrested after being found in Colne on Wednesday, May 28.

He was jailed for 60 days by magistrates at Burnley on Thursday.

Violent thug Gorman has had several spells inside, and has convictions for wounding, GBH, affray, and attacking a shopkeeper.

He was described by police as ‘very violent’ after attacking Don Jaconelli when the two brushed shoulders in High Perry Street, and jailed for an interminate period in 2006.

When Gorman attacked Mr Jaconelli, fracturing his skull in a frenzy described as ‘ferocious, vicious and sustained’, he was already on bail for beating up another man, leaving him battered, bruised, and unconcious.

Yesterday, police could not say what sentence Gorman was serving at the time he went on the run.

HMP Kennet, in Liverpool, is a category C prison, which houses offenders ‘who cannot be trusted in open conditions but who are unlikely to try to escape’.

The prison also housed 51-year-old Thomas Moffett, from Blackburn, an armed robber who failed to return from day release last month.

He was arrested in Canterbury Street three days later.

He escaped with murderer, Arnold Pickering, 44, who was serving a life sentence for stabbing a disabled man in 1990.

A spokesman for HMP Kennet declined to comment. The Prison Service said it did not comment on individual cases.